2026 Call for Contributions

Conference

Call for contributions is now closed

The European Association for Japanese Studies invited paper and panel proposals for the forthcoming 18th EAJS International Conference. Below you can read the rules and instructions.

EAJS2026 in Poznań is a hybrid conference, meaning with participants being able to take part in any panel either by being present in person or virtually. Everyone who plans to attend the conference either online or in person must register and pay fees once Early Bird registration opens (end of April 2026), with no exceptions.

Panel and paper proposal deadline was 5 January 2026.

Rules for the proposals:

Each delegate can only present once.
Convenors can present a paper in their own panel, or, if they wish, be the chair/discussant in their own panel, and present a paper elsewhere (they cannot do both).
All paper-givers may also have an additional role as a discussant in another panel, though not the one they are presenting in.
One can be a chair in one panel and a discussant in another. No other double roles are permitted.
Proposers MUST refrain from contacting Section convenors directly so as not to jeopardise the anonymous selection process. Section convenors have been asked not to respond to inquiries sent directly to them before the completion of the selection process.
Any queries concerning the submission of proposals, should be sent to eajs(at)nomadit.co.uk.

Proposing your contribution

As a panel – Panels may be proposed with 3 or 4 pre-agreed papers within them, and preferably a designated discussant. Panel organisers should ensure that there is sufficient time for discussion.
Panels are 90 min long, that leaves about 20 min for one presentation (usually 15min presentation + 5 min for Q&A).
Panel proposing convenors will receive an automated email confirming their proposal, including a link that would need to be sent for the paper authors to propose the pre-agreed papers.
As a poster (Japanese Language Education Section only) – proposing author will propose a poster description and stand next to the poster at the conference, presenting their work. Author would need to produce the A0 format poster an bring it to the conference. Posters will be displayed on poster boards.
Individual paper – author can propose a paper to the section, during the review section convenors might propose the transfer of paper if the topic is deemed to work better under different section.

1. Panel proposals

Panels may be proposed with three or four pre-agreed papers within them, and preferably a designated discussant. Panel organizers should ensure that there is sufficient time for discussion.

Proposals must consist of:

A panel title
Name and email addresses of the panel convenors (the person submitting the proposal does not have to add their name twice – their status as the convenor will be assumed!)
A short abstract of less than 300 characters (including spaces)
A long abstract of 350 words, explaining the overall focus of the panel
Below long abstract field there is a separate field for your abstract in Japanese if needed, this is not a mandatory field. If you do not have abstract in Japanese, just leave it empty.
An indication of which section the panel belongs to
A paper proposal (title & abstracts) for each paper within the panel (see ‘adding papers to panel proposal’)

You can choose between 3 different formats to propose your contribution:

N.B. panel abstracts should NOT state the names of any presenters

Those proposing panels are asked to be mindful of the inclusiveness of their membership, including rank, gender, and geographical diversity.

Keep in mind that if the panel get accepted, at least one of the panel convenors would need to be attending the conference in-person to mediate and chair the panel. Panels can not take place when both panel convenors are attending virtually/online.

Adding papers to panel proposal

After submitting the panel proposal, panel convenors will receive a confirmation containing a panel-specific link to forward to their presenters, who must then propose their papers directly into the panel before the deadline ( 5 January 2026).

2. Paper proposals – individual papers and papers in pre-organised panels

Paper proposals (both individual papers and those proposed to a specific panel) must consist of:

The paper title
Name and email addresses of the authors
A short abstract of less than 300 characters (including spaces)
A long abstract of less than 350 words
Below long abstract field there is a separate field for your abstract in Japanese if needed, this is not a mandatory field. If you do not have abstract in Japanese, just leave it empty.
Any audio-visual equipment requirements you have
Papers should generally be presented in English, but may be presented in Japanese if necessary (all must have an abstract in English). In such cases, speakers should use a clear and accessible style and provide an English summary and, if possible, English slides.

All individual papers and papers that are pre-organised for the proposed panels must be sent in by the end of the Call for Proposals (5 January 2026).

3. Posters (only in AJE section)

Poster format can be proposed to AJE section. Other sections do not accept poster formats.

If proposing a poster, author must enter the abstract for the topic presented and description of the presentation/poster presentation. Posters can not be presented virtually/online, all accepted poster authors would need to attend the conference in person.

Printed A0 size posters must be brought to the conference and they will be displayed on the posterboards during the conference.

If you are not sure if your poster proposal has been received to the system, please contact AJE.

4. Roundtables

Format where usually a group of scholars (usually no more than five) discusses themes/issues of general scholarly interest in front of (and subsequently with) an audience for the duration of a single 90-minute session. While a roundtable can include short (5-10 minute) contributions, the aim is to create a lively debate rather than focus on any one presenter.

Round table proposal must consists of:

The round table title
Name and email addresses of the authors
Round table participants added as discussants
A descriptions of the roundtable of less than 350 words
Proposal should generally be in English, but can have additionally Japanese abstract text added in the description field if preferred.
Round table should generally take place in English, if the convenor wishes to conduct the round table in any other language, please mark it in the description, so this can be communicated to delegates early on.

Round table convenor would need to add the round table participants as discussant on the proposal form. All round table participants are required to register and pay conference fees once the Early Bird registration starts in the end of April.

Sections

Please take a look at the Sections and when proposing your contribution, make sure to select which section your proposal would fit the best.

Urban and Regional Studies
Modern Literature
Pre-modern Literature
Visual Arts
Performing Arts
Media Studies
Economics, Business and Political Economy
History
Religion and Religious Thought
Intellectual History and Philosophy
Politics and International Relations
Law
Language and Linguistics
Anthropology and Sociology
Interdisciplinary Section: Digital Humanities
Interdisciplinary Section: Environmental Studies
Interdisciplinary Section: Gender Studies
Interdisciplinary Section: Trans-Regional Studies (East/Northeast/Southeast Asia)
—
Japanese Language Education (AJE) – using separate proposal form, see below.

Membership and presenting

All presenters must be EAJS members by the time of the conference.

However, presenters do not have to be members when submitting a proposal, and membership status has no influence on the selection process.

Decisions

When the call ends, the section convenors will review the proposals and decide which panels and individual papers to accept. The EAJS Council is not involved in this process. Panels will be accepted in their entirety and individual papers will be grouped into sessions. The convenors can pass proposals to other sections if they believe these would fit better there.

The review process consists of two stages:

initially information on the proposers is not visible, ensuring decisions are made on the quality of the abstract.
subsequently, convenors will review their decisions in non-anonymized form (i.e. with information on authors), allowing them to reflect on factors such as diversity and inclusivity and to avoid extremely unbalanced groups of speakers (e.g. in terms of gender, seniority or institutional affiliation).

The Program Committee (consisting of members of the EAJS Council) takes a final look at the selection to consider thematic overlaps between the sections.

Applicants will be informed of the selection results by the 15th March 2026. The section convenors are not required to give any feedback or justification for their decisions.

Grants to support conference attendance

The EAJS has applied to the Toshiba International Foundation for funds to support delegate attendance in the EAJS conference in 2026. The Call for Applications outlining eligibility criteria and application rules will be published soon.

The Call for Funding will open on 2 April 2026. All applications must be submitted via an online form, not by email. Selection results will be announced on the 28 May 2026.

In addition to meeting the application criteria, the awarding of a conference grant will be contingent on the approval of the funds requested for this purpose.

Other EAJS2026 pages

EAJS2026: Poznań, Poland

Call for Contributions

Conference Timeline

3 November 2025 to 5 January 2026 – Call for Panels and Papers open
19 January – submissions sent to Section convenors
15 March – selection process completed and communicated to applicants
2 April – 17 May Call for Funding
27 April – Early Bird registration opens
July – Early Bird registration closes, registration continues with standard prices